Future Changes To Recent Updates, 17-Dec-2007

As promised in last week's newspost, here are some of the initial ideas we have to further improve the player interaction in the game.

1. Expect the first new single-way player-vs-player combat area to hit the game in the first half of next year, along with a number of other PvP updates in the future.

2. As many people have suggested, we're planning to raise the 3,000gp staking/trading limit for certain players. This will be proportional to the number of Quest Points you have, with the top-end being ten-times what it is now! This should still offer protection from cheats, while also giving you more flexibility in your staking and trading activities.

3. We're looking at a way of giving LootSharers the ability to receive their drops as coins straight away, so that large items can be split between the party immediately. To avoid unbalancing the economy, we’re investigating ways that this could be tied in with the Grand Exchange (i.e, with the item in question being sold on the Exchange and the resulting proceeds being split between the team).

4. We are planning on adding an 'item lending' feature to the game. To prevent indefinite loans, you will be able to lend an item for the duration of your session (once either the lender or receiver logs out, the item will go back again). Obviously, we need to design this VERY carefully to cover all eventualities, but we reckon we can work something out.

These are just a taster of the many ideas we have gathered from you or from our developers. They should really improve your enjoyment of RuneScape, without opening the door for real-world traders. This doesn’t even mention the Grand Exchange, which we can go into more detail about…

The Grand Exchange

We have to hold our hands up and admit that a handful of starting prices were a little off. It was a huge task to get 15,000+ items valued correctly and some slipped through the net. We’re on the case, though, as we have already formed a team to manage the Grand Exchange!

As well as getting the starting price right, this team will regularly check prices on an ongoing basis, making sure that they naturally and accurately represent the current state of the player economy. Of course, they won’t be alone, as YOU will be there to help them! A new Forum, centred on the Grand Exchange, will be available to highlight any concerns you have about prices and marketplace matters, while a new web page is already in the works which will allow you to track item prices over a long period of time.

Some smaller changes to the Grand Exchange:

• Purchased items of a large quantity will be automatically noted
  
• There will be less unnecessary clicks when buying or selling items
  
• A ‘1,000’ quantity button will be introduced
  
• Access to single-click increases to your item quantity